Attorney General Merrick Garland insisted Tuesday that former President Donald Trump's possible 2024 candidacy will not interfere with the Department of Justice's investigation of the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Appearing on "NBC Nightly News," Garland told host Lester Holt that his department intends to charge anyone responsible for the riot at the Capitol.
"We intend to hold everyone ... who is criminally responsible for the events surrounding Jan. 6 — for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another — accountable," Garland said. "That's what we do."
The statement by Garland is similar to one delivered last week by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco at a cybersecurity conference in New York, Bloomberg reported.
"We're going to continue to do our job, to follow the facts wherever they go, no matter where they lead, no matter to what level," Monaco said. "We're going to continue to investigate what was fundamentally an attack on our democracy."
Although Trump has not declared whether he will run for president in 2024, he has hinted numerous times at his intention to seek office again.
In an interview last month with Newsmax's Rob Finnerty, Trump suggested that the ongoing House Jan. 6 committee investigation has contributed to a delay in him officially kicking off his 2024 campaign.
"I am leading in all the polls — against Republicans and Democrats. I am leading in the Republican polls in numbers that no one has ever even seen before. And against [President Joe] Biden, and anyone else they run, I am leading against them," Trump said.
"At the right time, I will be saying what I want to do," he added.
The news comes as the Jan. 6 committee prepares to reconvene for public hearings in September, House panel Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., told NPR over the weekend.
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